


The Look Part Three

by jupiter23



Series: The Look [3]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Gil's insane poker skills, M/M, Mutual Pining, Star Trek References, Still
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 04:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17953709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jupiter23/pseuds/jupiter23
Summary: In which a poker game is played and some deep thinking occurs.





	The Look Part Three

Scott glanced down at the two cards in his hand, and then back to the four lying face up on the table. So far, so good on this hand. He had the ace of diamonds and the ten of spades to go with the ten of hearts and the ace of clubs in the community hand—a two-pair, so far. Careful, or so he hoped, to not let his face betray a single thing, he glanced back up at everyone else.

“Well, I fold,” Vetra said, laying down the two cards in her hand. “This just got too rich for my blood.”

“Someone remind me why we let Gil introduce us to this?” Cora said. She and PeeBee had folded as soon as the three community cards had been dealt, but that might have had more to do with Gil doubling the bet than the fact that they didn’t have a good enough hand to stay in the round.

“Because it was supposed to be more fun. Higher stakes and all that,” Drack snarled. He’d run out of credits two rounds ago and was only watching the rest of them at this point. And he’d been growling under his breath ever since.

Scott’s gaze fell across the table to his only remaining opponent. Sara had tried to warn him that Gil was a force of nature when it came to poker, but Scott’s morbid curiosity had won out when everyone had invited him to play with them that day.

Gil Brodie held nothing back when you gave him a deck of cards and a few people willing to go up against him. He had shown from the first hand just how cutthroat of a player he was. Between Gil and Jaal, it was all Scott could do to stay in the game. But then, fortunately for everyone else at the table, SAM had announced that Jaal had an incoming call from his mothers on Havarl just as Vetra was preparing to deal out the third round. Jaal left to take his call, and the game had been mostly between Gil and Scott from that moment.

Gil was watching him with that same stony expression he’d been wearing since they’d started, his cheek propped up on a fist. His cards were lying face down on the table. Wordlessly, he arched an eyebrow. The message was obvious: was Scott staying in, or not?

“Fifty,” Scott answered Gil’s unasked question, tapping the amount into his omni-tool.

“I’ll call,” Gil agreed, pulling his arm back just long enough to enter it into his own omni-tool. With that, Vetra laid down the last card, which was the ace of spades.

Scott was proud of the fact that he’d only managed to blink once at the fact that he now had a full house. At least, he really _really_ hoped that was all he managed to give away. He glanced back up at Gil, who was still completely expressionless.

“Last round of betting,” Vetra reminded them when all they did was watch one another.

“Fifty,” Scott said again.

“Fifty, and another fifty,” Gil answered. The two of them watched each other again.

“Your father was actually a Vulcan, wasn’t he?” Scott asked after a minute.

Gil’s blank face broke for the first time since the game started. “What?”

“Your poker face is too damned perfect,” Scott explained.

Gil was now shooting him a dry stare. “Are you betting, or not?”

“Fine. I’ll see your hundred and raise you another hundred.”

“Your hundred against another hundred.”

Scott looked at his omni-tool. “Well, that’s me going all in, then,” he said. Gil was bluffing, he had to be. Scott fervently prayed that he was. Otherwise, he was joining Drack in the poorhouse until they got paid again.

“I suppose I’ll have to call it there, then,” Gil said with what sounded a lot like a sigh of pity.

“Moment of truth,” Cora said, and Scott flipped his cards over without taking his eyes off of Gil.

Gil glanced down at Scott’s cards. Then, unbelievably, his mouth split into a broad grin as he flipped over his cards.

“ _Get the fuck out!_ ” PeeBee shrieked.

“Are you serious?!” Vetra nearly shouted.

Scott could only stare in shock. Gil had the king and ace of hearts, along with the queen, jack, and ten of hearts in the community hand.

“My condolences, kid,” Drack said, patting Scott on the shoulder.

“Pathfinder to galley,” came Sara’s voice over the intercom. “Everything alright in there?”

“Everything’s fine,” Cora answered. “Gil just completely annihilated your brother at poker, is all.”

“Seriously, Ryder, it was the most savage takedown I’ve ever seen,” PeeBee added.

“Ugh,” Sara said. “I’m sorry, Scott. You need to borrow any money?”

“No, I’ll be fine,” Scott answered with a defeated sigh. “I’ll pay him back somehow.” He’d still been watching Gil when he answered his sister, so he didn’t miss how Gil’s face flashed from smug to unreadable to sly in the space of a second.

“I’m sure we can work _something_ out…” Gil said. Scott also didn’t miss how the statement seemed to have more than one meaning, though that possible other meaning eluded him for the moment.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, we’re nearly to H-047c. You and Drack will have plenty of remnant to take your frustrations out on,” Sara said.

The reminder that he’d finally— _FINALLY_ —was going to get to go on a mission with his sister had Scott perking back up a bit.

“We’ll be ready to go when you give the word,” Scott said. “Galley out.”

“I suppose I’ll go double-check the Nomad,” Gil said as he stood up, ignoring the glare Drack was shooting at him. “Wouldn’t want the radiation getting in and killing you before you get your chance to pay me back.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be a tragedy?” Scott deadpanned.

“It really would be, though,” Gil said as he headed for the door. “Oh, and by the way…live long and prosper,” he added, holding his hand up in the Vulcan salute as he glided out of the room.

“Smart ass,” Scott muttered after him.

“Guess I’ll go get my gun ready,” Drack grumbled, standing up and heading for the bridge.

“I’ve got reports to go over,” Cora said, following Drack.

“So, Ryder, how _are_ you going to pay him back?” PeeBee asked.

“I don’t have a single clue,” Scott said. “Maybe I _will_ have to borrow from Sara.”

“I’ll see if I can talk him into forgiving some of your debt while you’re down there,” Vetra said as she too stood up. “Gil may be ruthless when it comes to poker, but he _is_ reasonable.”

“Thanks Vetra,” Scott said, somewhat touched by her willingness to help him. “But please don’t go to any trouble on my behalf.”

Vetra’s mandibles lifted in a smirk, and there was a glint in her eye that Scott couldn’t decipher. “It won’t be any trouble at all! As a matter of fact, it’s probably going to be a lot of fun.” With that, she left the galley, and a bewildered Scott staring after her.

“What the hell was that supposed to mean?” he asked.

PeeBee snickered. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“Apparently not,” Scott said, turning to her.

“I guess you’ll find out soon enough, then,” she said, still giggling. “Gil isn’t a believer in playing with his food before he eats it.” Before Scott could make her elaborate, PeeBee was up and out of the galley.

Biting back a growl of frustration, Scott followed after her. He might as well check his own gear over while they were landing.

 

Gil smiled to himself as he headed up the ramp to the meeting room. Scott had made a concerted effort to keep his face under control, Gil had to admit. He was almost as good as Jaal. Almost, but not quite. His face still managed to advertise every one of his hands, even if it was only for a split second. When he had nothing or was getting ready to fold, his lips pulled down slightly in annoyance. And when he was sure he had a good hand, his eyes widened ever so slightly.

And Gil needed to get it all down in his poker journal as soon as possible. He had nothing else to do that couldn’t wait a bit, and with the _Tempest_ still on pretend radio silence, now seemed like a good time to get his observations down on his datapad. He was positive he’d left it up here again. At least he’d learned from the last time he left it in the meeting room and Sara had found it; the datapad was now encrypted with a passcode.

He immediately spied his datapad on a side table. Good, exactly where he left it, and no sign that anyone else had tried to access it. He picked it up, and then decided to take a moment to admire the scenery on the other side of the windows.

H-047c was actually rather beautiful, or so Gil always thought. True, the cluster of asteroids that used to be Habitat 5 was as uninhabitable as uninhabitable got, but the surface of the main asteroid had the same haunting beauty to it that those old photographs of misty forest scenes did. Or maybe it was because they reminded him a lot of the earliest photographs of the surface of Earth’s moon. A lot of untouched landscape that was just full of secrets waiting to be discovered...

The only differences, Gil supposed, was that the Moon hadn’t been so heavily irradiated that the astronauts that first went there couldn’t leave their landing module for fear of immediate death. And the Moon also didn’t have the scuttled hull of the _Natanus_ adrift among a cluster of nearby asteroids.  Then again, the Milky Way also didn’t have anything like the Scourge lurking around, waiting to destroy an unsuspecting ship or planet.

Speaking of the _Natanus_ , Gil suspected that was why Sara had changed their schedule around. The last of the cryo pods had been taken off of the ark just a few days ago, and a team from the Nexus was due to come and start dismantling the ark itself. If she was still trying to keep her brother out of sight of Initiative brass, then she would have needed to make sure there was no way they could intercept the _Tempest_.

As Gil watched, lost in his thoughts, the Nomad drove through in the distance towards the bridge crossing the nearby chasm. He remembered Sara saying something about wanting to take a longer way around to that remnant tiller. Vetra had reported at least three outposts looking for various metals for manufacturing purposes, and Sara already knew of some ideal spots on H-047c to launch some mining probes. She just needed to mark the spots, and decided to kill two birds with one stone by doing it on the way out to the remnant tiller.

But he was starting to wonder if she wasn’t also taking the scenic route for Scott’s benefit. This _was_ his first time getting to see any of this, after all. What _would_ Scott’s face look like, Gil wondered. Unlike in their poker game, he’d have no reason to hide his thoughts. Would he look at all of this with awe and wonder? Or would it just be boring to him? Would he want to come back again? Or would he decide none of this was for him and that he’d rather go settle down on one of the outposts?

And why did that last thought fill Gil with so much disappointment?

“Admiring the view?”

The voice was so sudden that Gil let out an undignified yelp and nearly dropped his datapad.

“Damn it, Vetra, how long have you been there?”

“Long enough to decide you look like a man who’s waiting for his long-lost husband to come home from a war or something,” she said.

“I do not!”

“You do too! I took a picture and everything!”

“Wait, you _what_?”

Wordlessly, Vetra held up her arm. On her omni-tool’s display was an image of Gil staring pensively through the windows.

“Oh, god,” he muttered.

“It’s kind of adorable, actually,” she said. “However, I didn’t come here to tease you about your crush on Scott.”

“I do _not_ have a crush on—“

“You absolutely _do_! Even Kallo can tell.”

At that, Gil could feel his cheeks warming up. He clamped his jaw shut and glared back out the window.

“What I came here to do was to ask you to go easy on him. This time, anyway.”

“For…?” he prompted. He wasn’t much in the mood for mysticism at the moment.

“Poker? And how you cleaned him out?” she reminded. “Maybe consider giving him some of his money back?”

Gil snorted. “I don’t recall doing that for the rest of you.”

“True,” Vetra agreed, irritation edging her voice at the admission.

“And if I did that, then the rest of you might start expecting it as well. And really, I just can’t have that. Especially not from Drack.”

“But who says everyone has to find out?” she countered.

“Everyone _will_ find out, though. You know nothing stays secret on this ship for very long,” he pointed out. “And if all of that did happen, then more of the crew might want to join in the game. Including Liam…”

Gil knew he’d driven his point home at the horrified look on Vetra’s face. “I guess you have a point,” she sighed. “In that case, think about going easy on him the next time he plays. And maybe stick with five-card draw and not…what did you say it was called?”

“Texas Hold’Em,” he supplied. “And I do have to say that he did a lot better at it than the rest of you. And if I teach Jaal how to play, the three of us will be unstoppable! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some things to do in engineering.”

“At least think about what I said,” she called after him as he left the meeting room.

Gil smirked to himself. He wouldn’t have to spend any time at all thinking about what Vetra had said. He’d already had SAM transfer Scott’s credits back to his account as soon as they’d left the ship.

He wasn’t unreasonable, after all. Not that he could have everyone else finding that out.


End file.
